Action needed this month on elections

The election laws involve very long time scales, so action is needed now for the 2018 municipal elections. Elections are in the first two weeks of October, and the specific date must be set by the Council of Ministers 18 months in advance - effectively by the end of March 2017.

The registration law requires that voter registration be done in the six months after the date of the election is marked - that is, April-September this year. But the national census will take place in August, and it will be extremely difficult to hold an electoral census as well. Thus there must be a change in the law, which will need to be agreed this month.

When could the voter registration be held? The National Elections Commission must set the number of local assembly members six months before the election, and that is based on the  number of registered voters. Processing and checking the electoral role takes about two months. That means the registration must end by the end of January 2018, which suggests electoral registration in the municipalities in November and December 2017 and in the rest of the country in April-September 2018 for national elections the following year.

Taken together, this month (March 2017) the Council of Ministers will need to set the municipal election date and parliament will need to amend the registration law.

Fonte: News reports & clippings
 2 March 2017